Sunday, November 30, 2014

California Teamsters Issue scathing letter in opposition to BDS

In a letter directed to the executive Board of UAW Local 2865, the California Teamsters have reiterated their opposition to BDS, stating unequivocally that they “cannot conceive of an action more hostile to the interests of
[Teamsters] members and more antithetical to the most basic principles
of the union movement”

The letter is reproduced in its entirety at the website of Informed Grads, a group organized in opposition to the Dec. 4th BDS resolution at the University of California

Dear [Michelle] Glowa and Members of the Executive Board,

It
has come to our attention that the Executive Board of UAW Local 2865 has
endorsed the “Global Boycott, Divestment, and Sanction Movement”
against companies that do business in Israel. In addition, we understand
you have also endorsed the so-called “Academic and Cultural Boycott of
Israel.” We further understand that you are putting the matter to a vote
of your bargaining unit members on December 6 [sic], 2014.

Teamsters
Joint Council 7 and 42 is comprised of our members in California,
Nevada, Hawaii, and the Pacific. This includes Local 2010 that
represents 14,000 employees throughout the University of California
system.

As you are no doubt aware, the companies that are targeted
by the BDS movement include numerous employers that are represented by
organized labor, including many thousands who are represented by the
Teamsters. Indeed, some of the companies you wish your union to boycott
and divest from are represented by the United Auto Workers. In the case
of the Teamsters, we represent tens of thousands of employees at the
following companies that are listed as targets of the BDS campaign:
Boeing
Cemex
General Dynamics
General Electric
ITT
Lockheed-Martin
Northrup-Grumman
Whatever
your motives, we cannot conceive of an action more hostile to the
interests of our members and more antithetical to the most basic
principles of the union movement than for a union to call for actions
which are intended to do harm to the economic security of other union
members. We would find it difficult to ask our members to support your
union in a labor dispute with the University of California so long as
you are engaged in activities that are fundamentally hostile to their
interests.

Giving you the benefit of the doubt, we can only assume
that you took your actions without consideration of the potential harm
to hard working union members across California and the United States.
We ask you to look at that issue now. Unlike the members of your union,
who are graduate students and therefore union members for a short period
of time, our members are working in jobs that must support them for a
lifetime and it is our job to protect them for all of their working
lives.
We would strongly request that you reconsider your actions.

2 comments:

Anonymous
said...

When this occurred I sent the following letter to the union, to Lara Kiswani, executive director of the Arab Resource and Organizing Center, and the the Chancellor. The Chancellor has not responded and he must say something or I will conclude that his silence equals compliance with Islamist agenda. I am happy that a union in America has finally found the courage to act in its own interests against the propaganda of the haters.-----------------------------------Dear Mr. Chancellor:

As a Canadian I am very aware of the BDS movement and the ugly, destructive and corrosive effect it has on the university community. It is rooted in an unfounded, irrational hatred of Israel which has, in effect, become the universal "Jew" to those who have a manic anti-Western bias that finds expression in anti-Semitism. These radical extremists are not looking for dialogue, they are looking to muzzle those who disagree with their perverted view of the world.

As a Chancellor, I think that you should be aware of the deep-seated hate, the destructive, intimidating and inhuman nature of the closed-minded tactics and the evil contained in their objectives. I want the University to make a statement about these acts of rage and prejudice cloaked in a disgusting ideology that has no basis in truth, academics or a desire for peace.

The actions of the union and the intolerant pro-BDS people ought to send shivers down the spine of anyone working in a pluralistic, multi-religious and open academic setting. This is the first-hand account from the pen of a someone who attended this meeting: